Yesterday, my bf managed to get us tickets to watch my long awaited movie, "The Forbidden Kingdom".
When I first heard the rumors of a possible movie collaboration between Jet Li and Jackie Chan, I was crossing my fingers, hoping it will be a reality this time.
I was always a die-hard fan of Jet Li since he made his movie debut , "Once Upon a Time in China".
I was so inspired by his Kung-fu stunts thatI even went scouting around to learn Kungfu (I was 15 that time when I started). After his breakthrough success with "Once a Upon a Time in China", I'd never missed any of his movie since then.
I was even crazy enough to watch all his movie twice in the cinema and bought his home videos (No VCD/DVDs then) and would watch it like 2-3 times a month. I even had posters pasted all over my room and a notebook with a collection of articles & pictures from newspaper! That was like 10 years back, but hey I'm still a big big fan of Jet li now (of course not as crazy as last time)...As for Jackie Chan, I was not a big fan but I do admired his stunts skill. You could say both are from different school of martial arts.
Jet li was trained in Shaolin Kungfu and Jackie Chan was trained in acrobatic stunts. So, they both complement each other like a "yin" and "yang", as Jet li quoted in one of his interview.
Anyway, cutting the story short....the stunts and martial arts showcased in the movie was really good. I have to give credit to the special effects used in the movie. It reminded me of the movie, "Storm Riders". Anyway, they even made the American teenager, played by "Michael Angarano" (Never seen him before...guess he must be new) looked good doing Kung-fu, all thanks to "Yuen Wo Ping"(The same choreographer for Matrix).
I love the Jet Li and Jackie Chan's fighting scene together cos both were equally cool with their own signature moves.
Jackie was playing the role of a drunken master and Jet Li the monk. There was even some kung-fu move of "Praying mantis" and "Tiger".The producer managed to inflict humor into their fighting scene too. But you could really see both have aged but they are still fighting like a 20 year old!
So, hats down to both of them who I think still is good at what they are doing and the best representation of real martial artist!
Though, there were hypes about Tony Jaa,(actor in the movie "Ombak") being the next replacement to Jackie and Jet li, I still think he has a long road to go before reaching that kind of stardom and ticket sales.
The verdict: Worth every penny and it's a must watch for die-hard fans. It's an overall feel good movie, with cool graphic, kung-fu stunts and humor. It is also now the No.1 box office movie in America, raking around 21.4 million beating the highly anticipated movie, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". Oh, and there is a small surprise at the end too.Happy watching people.
